How to Reduce Lip Swelling Fast

Swelling in lips makes most of us conscious, as it affects our look and personality. The highlight of this BeautiSecrets article is how to reduce lip swelling fast with or without using medicines.

Bidisha Mukherjee

Last Updated: Apr 9, 2018

The lip tissues are soft and sensitive, and get damaged rather easily. Minor injuries like biting of your lips accidentally while eating, or hitting of a ball on the face can cause swelling in the lips. You feel awkward when you have swollen lips, as they are one of the most visible features of your face. If the swelling is too much, then you may even find it difficult to open your mouth for eating, speaking, etc. For all these reasons, you feel the need of getting rid of swollen lips fast. It is possible to obtain quick relief from the problem mainly because the lip tissue has a unique characteristic that it can repair its damage much faster than the tissues of any other part of the body. In fact, swelling is an integral part of its healing process.

Causes

Besides injury, there are many other underlying factors that can give you swollen lips. A few of the major causes are as follows:

Oral Herpes: It is caused due to infection by herpes simplex virus. It is also known by other names like fever blisters and cold sores.

Skin Allergies: It can be triggered by chemicals present in your cosmetics, various environmental irritants, and bug stings.

Food Allergies:This is an allergic reaction that gives you itchy, swollen lips after consumption of a particular food or drink.

Nutritional Deficiency: Vitamin B deficiency gives swelling at the corner of the lips. Here, other accompanying symptoms are red, scaly skin, and cracks at the corner of the mouth.

Change in Temperature: The lips do not have any oil glands that can keep them lubricated. So, when they are exposed to extreme cold, they turn dry and swelling occurs. The same thing can happen after a prolonged sun exposure.

Treatment

When swelling in the lips is accompanied with bleeding, then it requires immediate medical intervention. Bleeding from minor cuts or injuries can be stopped with medicinal ointments. Doctors may also prescribe antibiotic ointments to prevent any secondary bacterial infection in the region. A serious traumatic injury, that has badly damaged the lip tissues, is often repaired with stitching.

A nutritional deficiency needs to be countered with the help of vitamin supplements. One should also consume foods that are rich sources of vitamin B such as oats, bananas, avocados, legumes, liver, turkey, etc. for a faster recovery.

Repeated outbreaks of fever blisters are treated with topical ointments and anti-viral oral medicines. Doctors often suggest use of vitamin E oil on dry, swollen lips that result from exposure to extreme temperature conditions.

How to Get Rid of Swollen Lips from Allergic Reaction

In case of an allergic reaction, doctors first try to identify the allergen that triggered swelling, and advise the patient to completely avoid exposure to the allergen. Then they prescribe antihistamine medicines for controlling the swelling of lips. If there is an excessive swelling, oral corticosteroids are also needed for reducing the swelling fast.

How to Reduce Lip Swelling Fast Without Medicines

There are some excellent home remedies that work really fast on mild lip swelling. You can also try them out along with the prescription medicines, that are discussed in the previous section. Here are a few of them:

Cold Application: There are two different ways of applying cold. You can just wrap up an ice cube in a soft piece of cloth, and put it over the affected part for 10-15 minutes. Or else, keep a spoon inside the freezer for 10 minutes, and then place the cold spoon on the lip. This increases the blood flow in the region, and can reduce the pain and swelling within a few minutes.

Baking Soda: Prepare a thick paste by mixing up two tablespoons of baking soda and some water, and apply a thick coat of this mixture on the inflamed part of the lip. This will bring down the itching sensation as well as the inflammation caused by allergic rashes, fever blisters, or insect bites.

Aloe Vera: When you apply fresh aloe vera gel on the swollen area, it readily gets absorbed into the skin, and its natural anti-inflammatory properties reduce the pain and inflammation quite fast. It can also fight off any bacterial infection that tend to develop on cracked lips. It can be safely used on sunburned lips, bug bites, and oral herpes.

Black Tea Bag: Black tea has a component named tannins, which has excellent astringent qualities. It can constrict the soft tissues of the body, and decrease swelling in them. Soak a black tea bag in warm water for 10 minutes. Then take it out from the warm water, and allow it to cool down. Now, place it over the swelling for 15 minutes. You have to repeat this 3-4 times throughout the day for quick results.

Many a time, you delay the healing process by licking the area repeatedly. It is true that you find it difficult to control that urge, but you have to. This is because it can increase the swelling even further. So, if you want to reduce lip swelling fast, stop passing the tongue over your lips now!

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is solely for educating the reader. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice of a medical expert.